Research on Ageing

Some loss of memory is often considered an inevitable part of aging, but new research reveals how some people appear to escape that fate. A study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators examines a remarkable group of older adults whose memory performance is equivalent to that of younger individuals and finds that certain key areas of their brains resemble those of young people. 

The study published in The Journal of Neuroscience is the first step in a research program aimed at understanding how some older adults retain youthful thinking abilities and the brain circuits that support those abilities. The program is led by Bradford Dickerson, MD, director of the Frontotemporal Disorders Unit in the MGH Department of Neurology and Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, MGH Department of Psychiatry, who are co-senior authors of the new study.

While most older adults experience a gradual decline in memory ability, some researchers have described older adults – sometimes called “super agers” – with unusually resilient memories. For the current study, the MGH team enrolled 40 adults ages 60 to 80 – 17 of whom performed as well as adults four to five decades younger on memory tests, and 23 with normal results for their age group – and 41 young adults ages 18 to 35.

"Previous research on super aging has compared people over age 85 to those who are middle aged. Our study is exciting because we focused on people around or just after typical retirement age - mostly in their 60s and 70s - and investigated those who could remember as well as people in their 20s."

Imaging studies revealed that these super agers had brains with youthful characteristics. While the cortex - the outermost sheet of brain cells that is critical for many thinking abilities - and other parts of the brain typically shrink with aging, in the brains of super-agers a number of those regions were comparable in size to those of young adults.

Critically, the researchers showed not only that super-agers had no shrinkage in these brain networks but also that the size of these regions was correlated with memory ability. One of the strongest correlations between brain size and memory was found in an area at the intersection of the salience and default mode networks. Previous research has shown that this region - the para-midcingulate cortex - is an important hub that allows different brain networks to communicate efficiently.

Understanding which factors protect against memory decline could lead to important advances in preventing and treating age-related memory loss and possibly even various forms of dementia.  We need to understand how some older adults are able to function very well into their seventh, eight, and ninth decades. This could provide important clues about how to prevent the decline in memory and thinking that accompanies ageing in most of us.

This blog was written from information received from David A. Kekich and the Maximum, Life Foundation www.MaxLife.org

How do we fight negative portrayals of our age group?

Negative portrayals of older adults are pervasive in our society. There is overwhelming evidence that we are faced with negative attitudes in everyday life, be it in the way one communicates with us,  in the media , in the work context, and in the realm of health care.  

Research suggests not only that we are frequently confronted with negative views of their age group but also that we even share them. How can we protect our self-esteem against the impact of negative perceptions of old age?

In general, people are highly motivated to prevent negative self-images. Research on “cutting off reflected failure” has shown that group members tend to distance themselves from groups that are detrimental to their self-perception.

For example, fans of sport teams tend to distance themselves from their team after a loss. Similarly, research on individual mobility in the context of social identity has shown that some members leave groups that are negatively evaluated. Specifically, people may stay in or leave certain groups as a function of the in-group’s status position.

What this may mean is that as we tend not to think of ourselves as older, we may move away from friends and others who appear or act old. (however we see this notion) I have a saying which for me defines old age. A person is old if they are at least 10 years older than me. So at this stage of my life an old person is someone who is 80 plus. When I was forty an old person was someone who was 50.

We all have our own little tricks that allow us to think of ourselves as young. But as we think about the negatively stereotyped group of older adults, we take steps to differentiate our selves from their age group thus allowing us older adults to protect our self-esteem from the impact of negative age stereotypes.

Differentiation refers to contrasting away from negative views of one’s own age group and distancing oneself from the membership of the group of old people. By focusing on aspects of the self-concept that are different from the negative portrayals of older adults, older adults may counteract their negative impact on self-esteem.

The present research suggests that by focusing on being different from one’s age group, older adults can ward off the of negative age-related information on their self-esteem on an explicit and implicit level. Therefore, contrasting and differentiating oneself from the stereotypical representation of their age group may allow older adults to protect their self-esteem

Are we living longer?

The quick answer is yes, for most of us, and while we are living longer, we also seem to have a better standard of living.

Data from the National Vital Statistics System, Mortality shows that:

• Life expectancy for the U.S. population in 2014 was unchanged from 2013 at 78.8 years.
• The age-adjusted death rate decreased 1.0% to 724.6 deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2014 from 731.9 in 2013.
• The 10 leading causes of death in 2014 remained the same as in 2013. Age-adjusted death rates significantly decreased for 5 leading causes and significantly increased for 4 leading causes.
• The infant mortality rate decreased 2.3% to a historic low of 582.1 infant deaths per 100,000 live births. The 10 leading causes of infant death in 2014 remained the same as in 2013.

How long can we expect to live?

Life expectancy at birth represents the average number of years that a group of infants would live if the group was to experience, throughout life, the age-specific death rates present in the year of birth. 

In 2014, life expectancy at birth was 78.8 years for the total U.S. population—81.2 years for females and 76.4 years for males.This is the same as in 2013. 

Life expectancy for females was consistently higher than life expectancy for males. In 2014, the difference in life expectancy between females and males was 4.8 years, the same as in 2013. 

This report presents 2014 U.S. final mortality data on deaths and death rates by demographic and medical characteristics. 

These data provide information on mortality patterns among U.S. residents by such variables as sex, race and ethnicity, and cause of death. 

Information on mortality patterns is key to understanding changes in the health and well-being of the U.S. population. 

Life expectancy estimates, age-adjusted death rates by race and ethnicity and sex, the 10 leading causes of death, and the 10 leading causes of infant death were analyzed by comparing 2014 final data with 2013 final data 

In 2014, the 10 leading causes of death - heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide - remained the same as in 2013. 

The 10 leading causes accounted for 73.8% of all deaths in the United States in 2014. 

From 2013 to 2014, age-adjusted death rates significantly decreased for 5 of the 10 leading causes of death and significantly increased for 4 leading causes. 

The rate decreased by 1.6% for heart disease, 1.2% for cancer, 3.8% for chronic lower respiratory diseases, 1.4% for diabetes, and 5.0% for influenza and pneumonia. 

The rate increased by 2.8% for unintentional injuries, 0.8% for stroke, 8.1% for Alzheimer's disease, and 3.2% for suicide. 

The rate for kidney disease in 2014 remained the same as in 2013.

Social Participation in Age Friendly Communities

I am continuing my look at a report prepared for the Healthy Aging and Wellness Working Group of the Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial (F/P/T) Committee of Officials (seniors) in 2006 that focused on age friendly communities.

Social networks, social participation and feelings of belonging are important to healthy living, disease prevention and the prevention of isolation among seniors. Older people who remain active in society and socially connected are happier, physically and mentally healthier, and better able to cope with life’s ups and downs. 

The focus group discussions shed some light on the social activities of seniors living in rural and remote communities across Canada. The three most frequently mentioned social activities in such communities include:

•                             Physical recreation or sports-related activities, including spectator sports

•                             Church or school-related events or programs

•                             Events that include food, including potlatches, community dinners and even funerals

An important and common factor in these frequently occurring community activities is that they bring together generations of people. Older persons in the focus groups frequently talked about the importance and desirability of mixing with other adults and children of all ages. One innovative program mentioned was a “seniors, moms and tots” swimming program. Others mentioned that they (older people) also regularly curl with younger people in the community, and many said they meet up with other family members and other community members at the hockey arena or the school gymnasium to cheer on community sports teams.

Some older focus group participants, but not all, said they prefer not to participate in “seniors” events or to restrict themselves to only friendships with people their own age

Food acts as a huge connector between members of rural and remote communities, and this became very apparent early in each focus group. Similarly, funerals and wakes, and other events that bring people together at times of death surfaced frequently in the discussions. While participants identified community and other organized events as important, other, less organized social contact is also clearly important to many. This may include, for example, a service provider taking time to stop for a cup of tea or coffee while attending to his or her “client.”

Walking is also a favourite participatory pastime of older persons. In addition, courses— especially computer courses—are popular amongst older residents in some rural or remote communities, as are card clubs, bingo and darts.

Some participants raised the issue that, at least in some communities, older people who are newcomers to a community (e.g., people who move to a rural community in retirement) can face a different social reality than those who have lived there most of their lives.

Some of the older adult focus group participants raised concerns that many seniors do not take advantage of the programs available to them. In some cases, this has led to recreational facilities closing down. Others noted that funding problems have left facilities without management and program staff. The lack of transportation arises, yet again, as a key barrier to older persons’ participation in social events. Other common barriers identified include a lack of information about planned events (information not getting out to people in a timely or efficient manner), and problems of affordability and accessibility that prevent some seniors from being able to participate in social activities and programs.

Summary of Key Findings
Focus group participants offered a number of suggestions for communities to consider in social planning and programming for seniors:

Age-friendly features include

·       Opportunities for physical recreation or sports, including spectator sports

·       Activities for seniors offered in places of worship or schools

·       Food-related activities—including coffee/tea get-togethers

·       Cultural events—including those that feature music and theatre

·       Non-physical recreation (indoor activities) such as bingo, cards, darts, etc.

·       Courses on crafts or hobbies

·       Locating all activities in areas that are convenient and accessible (including by public transportation) to seniors

·       Providing activities that are affordable to everyone

·       Offering intergenerational and family (multigenerational) oriented activities

Barriers include

§  Transportation difficulties and offering too many activities that require travel

§  Low attendance leading to cancellation of activities

§  Under-utilization of recreation facilities

§  A lack of facilities or program staff

§  Social barriers (real and/or perceived) for older newcomers

Suggestions from participants for improving age-friendliness

·       Find ways to encourage a variety of people to come out to social events and activities—including those on fixed incomes, those who live alone and those less mobile—in order get broad representation of the community.

·       Cover the costs of courses for seniors.

·       Need additional resources in rural communities.

·       Establish adult day programs for those with dementia to develop support systems and improve their health.

·       Offer day programs for older persons in community health centres/ recreational facilities to provide health and well-being services (e.g., health programs, disease prevention, coping skills) and other activities. Such programs would not only provide social opportunities for seniors, they would also provide families with respite.

·       Organize home visits by neighbours and other members of the community.

Respect and Social Inclusion in Age Friendly communities

I am continuing my look at a report prepared for the Healthy Aging and Wellness Working Group of the Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial (F/P/T)   Committee of Officials (seniors) in 2006 that focused on age friendly communities.

Older persons want to do more than simply continue to reside in their communities—they want to be able to contribute to, and benefit from, community life.  Active and involved seniors are less likely to experience social isolation and more likely to feel connected to their communities.  These connections are particularly important, given the strong linkages between social isolation and health. While social isolation tends to increase as people age, communities that promote social participation and inclusion are better able protect the health of their citizens, including those who are socially isolated

Focus group discussions point out that, in general, older persons in rural and remote communities are treated with a great deal of respect, kindness and courtesy by all generations—a view shared by both older participants and confirmed by service providers in the groups.  Even though several service providers observed that retailers and customers become impatient with seniors who may move at a slower pace, very few participants expressed dissatisfaction with the way that  older persons were treated and included in community life.  In fact, most said that older persons were included, consulted and made to feel a part of the community, with several attributing this to the “small-town” philosophy of rural or remote Canada.

Discussion results point to some cultural differences in how older persons were shown respect.  For example, one participant spoke of how calling older persons “Mr.” or “Mrs.” was common practice in the community.  A participant from another community (with a large Aboriginal population) remarked that calling an older woman “Auntie” was one of the highest forms of respect.

In yet another community, the older persons label themselves, and are referred to by others, as “elders” rather than seniors. This was attributed to the fact that the community had a “mixed” (Aboriginal/non- Aboriginal) population.  While it was suggested by at least one participant that younger people were sometimes perceived as being somewhat disrespectful because of the informal way in which they addressed seniors (i.e., not using “Mr.” or “Mrs.”)—others assumed that this was more a lack of “education” rather than disrespect.

Participants from all parts of Canada offered numerous examples of intergenerational respect and interaction, many originating in the schools.  Intergenerational activities provide opportunities for older adults to interact with younger groups—allowing them to pass on knowledge, traditions and skills.  Focus group results also show that communities demonstrate their respect and appreciation of seniors through many and varied events and awards that recognize or celebrate older persons.  Such events as “senior’s dinners” were cited frequently as recognition events—others mentioned include community memoirs that capture the stories of seniors.

Some participants suggested that one acceptable way to show respect is to acknowledge and accept that not all older persons wish to be active in the community.

The serious issues of elder abuse, or neglect, were noted during discussions of the challenges family members and other caregivers face.  Service provider participants identified the importance of and need for providers to be taught/trained in how to support families in challenging circumstances.

Despite the efforts of individuals and communities, isolation of older persons exists and persists in rural and remote communities.  Such isolation is often, but not always, the result of health or mobility issues. 

Older adults and service providers identified that the reason some seniors are lonely is the changing times in which we live—characterized by neighbours being “just not as neighbourly” as before. Nevertheless, it is clear that, in some communities, much effort is made to reach older persons who might suffer from isolation—whether by ensuring that older persons have been invited and included in community activities, or by merely taking note when older persons do not show up at an event at which they were expected.

Summary of Key Findings

Discussions about respect for seniors and the importance of preventing social isolation pinpointed some ideas about what constitutes an age-friendly community, as well as barriers and suggestions for improvement on these fronts:

Age-friendly features include 

•       Respect, kindness and courtesy—including across generations

•       Accommodation including outreach

•       Feel included, consulted and part of the community

•       Events or awards that recognize seniors

Barriers include 

•       Health or mobility issues that lead to isolation of older adults

•       Disrespect, ageism or elder abuse

•       Older persons not always heard or seen

Suggestions from participants for improving age-friendliness 

•       Provide opportunities for intergenerational activities and events—don’t isolate older people.

•       Provide support to families in challenging circumstances to help prevent elder abuse.

•       Make younger people aware of aging issues and the importance of treating older people with respect—consider offering seminars on what it’s like to be older.

•       Start an honorary grandparent program—it can provide a focus for intergenerational activities and contact in the community.

•       Promote positive qualities of aging and older people (instead of focusing on the negative).

•       Put in place a “community memories” program in a local museum (or promote those that already exist).  The older phase of a life is an important one that can be captured and kept through stories.

•       Consider establishing outreach programs, such as the “telephone assurance” program that is being used in some communities.

•       Develop and support key outreach measures—the voluntary and informal transportation networks that are so vital to ensuring that older people who lack transportation options are not isolated.

Tasks of Ageing 5: Finding new rooting in the self

Jung’s fifth task of aging, “finding new rooting in the self,” accounts for significant behavioral differences between how we act and react in the first half and second half of life.

In the second half of life, we tend to be more introspective; less dependent on external cues; more individuated; and more autonomous. In the first half of life we tend to be more deeply rooted in the external world; in the second half we are more deeply rooted in the inner world or self.

Where does our sense of self come from, John Locke views self as a series of memories taken from as episodic memory. Both episodic and semantic memory systems have been proposed to generate a sense of self-identity: personal episodic memory enables the phenomenological continuity of identity, while personal semantic memory generates the narrative continuity of identity.

The nature of personal narratives depends on highly conceptual and ‘story-like’ information about one’s life, which resides at the general event level of autobiographical memory and is thus unlikely to rely on more event-specific episodic systems.

In Jungian theory, the Self is one of several archetypes, which are ways of responding to the world in particular ways. The Self signifies the coherent whole, unifying both the consciousness and unconscious mind of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is the most important and difficult archetype to understand.

What distinguishes Jungian psychology from previous theories is the idea that there are two centers of the personality. The ego is the center of conscious identity, whereas the Self is the center of the total personality—including consciousness, the unconscious, and the ego.

For Jung, the Self is both the whole and the center. While the ego is a self-contained little circle off the center contained within the whole, the Self can be understood as the greater circle.

The Self, besides being the centre of the psyche, is also autonomous, meaning that it exists outside of time and space. Jung also called the Self a  imago dei. The Self is the source of dreams and often appears as an authority figure in dreams with the ability to perceive the future or guide one in the present^]

So for Jung, this task requires us to gain self-knowledge. In knowing about ourselves, we are more capable of knowing how to be socially acceptable and desirable.  Self knowledge means that we have:

Self-awareness

This can be divided into two categories: private self-awareness and public self-awareness. Private self-awareness is defined as the self looking inward at oneself, including emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. All of these cannot be discovered by anyone else. 

Public self-awareness is defined by gathering information about your self through the perceptions of others. The actions and behaviors that others show towards a person will help that person establish a sense of how others perceive them. For example, if a person likes to sing, however many other people discourage their singing, that person can conclude that they might not be the best at singing. Therefore, in this situation, they are gaining public self-awareness about an aspect of themselves

Self-esteem

Which is how a we evaluate ourselves. Four factors that contribute to self-esteem are:

·        the reactions we get from other people

·        how we compare people to ourselves

·        social roles

·        our identification.

Our social roles can sometimes be conceived as higher intelligence or ability, such as an Olympic athlete or biotechnologist. Other social roles might be stigmatized as being negative, such as a criminal or homeless person. People with high self-esteem view their selves as containing positive traits. They are more willing to take more risks and aim for success. People with high self-esteem tend to be confident, gain self-acceptance, do not worry as much about what others think about them, and think more optimistically.

In contrast, people with low self-esteem view their selves as containing few or no positive traits, rather than viewing their selves as containing negative traits. It is rare for a person to rate their overall self as being terrible. People with low self-esteem typically:

·         do not wish to fail

·         are less confident in their success rate

·         have confused and diverged notions about their self (self-concept confusion)

·         focus on self-protection more so than self-enhancement

·         have more pessimistic thinking

Social norms constitute the “unwritten rules” that we have about how to act in certain scenarios and with various people in our lives. For example, when a person is in a classroom, they are more likely to be quiet and attentive; whereas at a party, they are more likely to be socially engaged and standing. Norms act as guidelines that shape our behavior. Without them, there would not be any order, as well as lack of understanding in situations in society.

Social roles are defined as the parts that a person plays in different situations and with other people. Our roles change in order to fit the “expected” behaviors in various scenarios. For example, a person may be a mother, a doctor, a wife, and daughter. Her behavior would most likely change in her transition from being a doctor to coming home to her daughter

As we find new roots in self, we recognize our social roles and our social norms and make decisions about whether we want to continue to follow these of whether we want to create new roles and norms for ourselves. 

The Tasks of Ageing No. 4: Letting Go of the Ego

“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.” Jung

What is Ego, while it is the “I” or self of any person (ego is Latin for “I”) or in psychological terms, the ego is the part of the psyche that experiences the outside world and reacts to it

So when you are letting go of your Ego, you are becoming part of the collective universe. Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfill our deep innate potential. Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung believed that this journey of transformation, which he called individuation, is at the mystical heart of all religions

So in this task, Jung is saying that the part of you that defines itself as a personality, which separates itself from the outside world, and considers itself (read: you) a separate entity from the rest of nature and the cosmos, should start on a journey to meet the Divine. Jung's pantheism may have led him to believe that spiritual experience was essential to our well-being, as he specifically identifies individual human life with the universe as a whole.

Throughout our life we have seen and participated in constant personality clashes. Confronting individual interests and domination attempts against each other were commonplace. Of course, this kind of conflicts made it impossible to achieve any kind of harmony, hindering team work, causing stress among people and a myriad of other problems, including illnesses.

As we age, it is fundamental for our well-being to learn how to listen, accept our differences and build together a more peaceful way of living.

Following are some recommendations to help you transcend the ego.

1. Don’t be offended

By letting go, you will open yourself to many more opportunities, and enjoying a richer life.

Being offended creates destructive energy, leading to a never ending series of attacks and counterattacks. Of course, you should still be offended by the many horrific things that happen in this World.

2. Get rid of the need to win and to be right

The need to win is a never ending rat race that will never allow you to step aside and reflect on your actions. Recognize that we cannot win all the time.

In fact, living in a state of permanent competition against others is very detrimental for yourself. I have seen many relationships get screwed by the need of certain people to be always right. “We must go beyond the constant clamor of ego, beyond the tools of logic and reason, to the still, calm place within us: the realm of the soul.” – Deepak Chopra

3. Overcome the need to feel superior

The ego tends to judge everyone and everything based on the appearance, achievements, possessions, value and other metrics that make sense only from the ego point of view. It loves to divide people between winners and losers. These feelings will pull you apart from others, and apart from the true enjoyment of life.

4. Overcome the need for more

The ego is never satiated. It doesn’t matter how much you have, your ego will keep on asking for more. When you overcome the ego, it feels as if you have more than you want. You will realize how little you really need, and will be at peace. You will be pleased with yourself by simply living.

5.  Choose Love

Yeah, I know how that sounds, but give it a chance. Even if you can’t quite get on board the love train, don’t worry about it.

6. Never Complain

Complaining keeps us locked in negativity, right? I mean, think about it. Who wants to hang out with someone who complains all the time? No one. So why complain even to yourself?

Feel like complaining find something beautiful and focus, and instead of complaining focus on the positive.

7. If All Else Fails, Just Be Grateful

It’s hard to be down and out while also feeling grateful. This whole practice of dissolving ego is like one big detox.

Stop and meditate. Reconnect with the World. Follow what you truly believe is your goal in this World, beyond what others think you should do at all. If you worry about how others perceive your actions, you will end up losing touch with your true self.

Working on yourself in this way can be exhausting, I know. But don’t think you have to do it all at once; don’t feel like you’ve failed if you have a fearful or anxious thought. The work you’re doing here is a journey and it’s a journey taken in very small, manageable steps. Let each step be a destination of its own, if that’s what drives you. Each breath, each moment, each movement you make is your destination. Even as you begin, know you have already arrived

Task three of Aging Defining Life Realistically

When we “cling to illusions that are contrary to reality, then problems will surely arise”, according to Jung.  If we are following the tasks of ageing, we have come to understand that we are not immortal, that we will die, as well we have taken a look back and have understood the rules with which we live our life, and we have accepted these or made adjustments to them.

As we complete Jung’s task one and task two we have (hopefully) come to understand who we are, and we are prepared to strip away the illusions that we had come with us into the aging process. Many life events could have triggered our examination of our own reality, whether it be the sudden death of a loved one, a broken marriage, children run amok, a health crisis, a lost job or any number of other life challenges.

What does defining life realistically mean to you? This question is answered differently by each of us, and there is no wrong answer, if the question is answered based on our true understanding of self and how we see the world.  I know I cannot react as fast as I did when I was younger, nor is my mind as sharp as it once was, so I read this as the task of adjusting to the current situation of how my body and mind are different from what it was at 25 or 45.

I have friends who as they have aged have become narrower in their outlook on life, they have closed off themselves from new ideas, new ways of doing and do not open their minds to ideas that differ from their own. I find this sad, I believe that we as humans need to continually learn and grow.

To me finding life realistically means going deeper, spending more time reading, thinking instead of reacting and doing. I find myself more tolerant of the actions and words of others, I am open to more ideas that differ from my views than I was when I was I younger. Ageing is perhaps an exercise in letting go and accepting.

As the French philosopher and mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said: we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. As I grow older and look at life realistically, I realize there is merit in this idea.

Age allows us the luxury of realistically looking at our selves and our world, and the sense to begin to make changes that benefit, not only ourselves but the people we care about.   

Did you know living longer may be bad for society?

This is interesting, living longer should be good for us, but evidently there is a problem with a whole bunch of us living longer. The following is part of an on-line interview with a catastrophist. A catastrophist is a person who specializes in studying the risk to society as people live longer. The entire interview is here

Dr. Woo, a Cambridge-trained mathematician and MIT-trained theoretical physicist who now works for the London-based consultancy RMS, spends his days thinking about catastrophic risks. Woo is one of the world’s best-respected “catastrophists,” and RMS—short for Risk Management Solutions—helps insurers and reinsurers calculate the likelihood of disastrous earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, terrorist attacks, financial crises, and other hazards. Lately, Woo has been thinking a lot about the risks posed by climate change, which could have a huge impact on the catastrophes of the future, altering sea levels, weather patterns, migration patterns, and much more. But Woo’s other major preoccupation these days is the risks posed by people living longer.

In his closing statement, Dr. Woo says:

Well, cancer does not make that much difference, either; if an ageing person does not die of cancer, they will die of heart disease. The real issue is that the ageing process can be arrested. The biggest cause of death is not cancer or heart disease. The biggest cause of death is ageing. If you can slow down the process of ageing, you are slowing down all causes of death.

This is new territory for mankind. There is an interesting book called “Positively Ninety.” It is a series of interviews with nonagenarians who are all very lively. My favourite is the cover woman, who actually plays competitive Scrabble at the age of 90. She is very sharp, has a very positive attitude towards life, and a very good network of friends and family. If you read these interviews with positive nonagenarians, you will get a glimpse into the future, because a high proportion of people will be just like that. The 90s will be like the 80s today. In addition, it will become commonplace to reach 100. In fact, for a baby born today, the expectation is already that they will live to 100.

Is 60's the New 40"

The simple answer is no. However, the more important question is why do we make the statement. Is it a fear of ageing? Our culture is obsessed with youth, and the thought of being old (defined as over 62 in Europe and being over 65 in North America) is not comforting to many. Why do we fear about ageing? Here are five of the most common fears of women and men.  Notice the differences and similarities. 

Men

Impotence The prospect of impotence was scarier than cancer or death to readers of a men's magazine in a 2001 poll. Perhaps there is a good medical reason for this: Otherwise healthy men who have erectile problems have been shown to have abnormal coronary tissue, higher incidence of high blood pressure, high blood fat, and other markers of heart disease.

Weakness Feeling weaker was named one of the most dreaded parts of aging for nearly 9 in 10 people surveyed earlier this year by the American Geriatrics Society Foundation for Health in Aging along with Abbott Labs.

Retirement/irrelevance The prospect of retiring fires enormous anxiety because it, too, begs the question, "If I'm not my career, what am I?" In the U.S., reaching retirement age tends to coincide with having your opinion solicited less and becoming”invisible," she adds. Net result: a huge ego blow.

Losing wheels (and independence) The prospect of having to give all that up -- which many men first think about when they see their own fathers turning in the keys for safety's sake -- is scary indeed. Driving is also emblematic of another fear: Becoming dependent on others to meet basic needs. 

Losing your mind (or your wife losing hers) Perhaps recent headlines are scaring more men into the fear of Alzheimer's: Men are more likely than women to have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) -- sometimes called "pre-Alzheimer's" -- and get it earlier, according to a Mayo Clinic study in the September 2010 journal Neurology. Nearly one in five men ages 70 to 85 have the condition, which falls between normal forgetfulness and early dementia Know that only about 15 percent of cases of mild cognitive impairment evolve into dementia each year. (If you are married, you may be protected; MCI is highest in men who were never wed.) No sure fire ways to prevent Alzheimer's have been found, but a heart-healthy lifestyle may lower the risk.

Women:

Losing Attractiveness/Becoming  "Invisible"  Fear about appearance persists right into the 70s and 80s 

Being Left Alone A spouse's death figures high among women's fears, as does seeing their children dying first or losing old friends when they relocate for retirement, move to be closer to family, or become sick or die.

Becoming a Bag Lady Bernie Madoff, the real estate collapse, and the Great Recession 2.0 have only fueled a classic female fear of aging: financial destitution. Today's younger women may also carry mental images of their mothers' and grandmothers' financial illiteracy.

Cancer  Maybe it's those ubiquitous pink ribbons. Cancer, particularly breast cancer, tops the health concerns women fear most, according to a 2005 study by the Society for Women's Health Research.

Being Dependent on Others both men and women alike dread "becoming a burden, and for many women, who have traditionally been the caregivers, the prospect of a role reversal is especially uncomfortable.

Source: https://www.caring.com/articles/5-things-men-fear-about-aging  https://www.caring.com/articles/5-things-women-fear-about-aging